Colombo hosts Evergreen’s Regional Trade and Agency meeting

Evergreen Line of Taiwan, one of the mega container carriers in the world, held its key Regional Trade and Agency Meeting at Cinnamon Grand Hotel recently. This is the first regional meeting held in Colombo by the Evergreen Line for its two and a half decades of operations in Sri Lanka.

The Meeting was chaired by the Chairperson of Evergreen Marine Singapore Molly Mok and was conducted by the President Adam Lee. Delegates from 17 countries including Indian Subcontinent, West Asia, Egypt, East Africa, South East Asia and top Evergreen officials from Singapore and Taiwan flew to Colombo to attend this two-day event.

The purpose of this two-day event was to discuss, analyze and identify various opportunities to enhance the businesses of Evergreen especially in the regions extending from ISC, West Asia and East Africa and long hauls between Asia and Europe and to  introduce new services in view of Evergreen’s ambitious Fleet expansion program.

Evergreen has placed an order for one hundred brand new vessels including charter of 13,000 TEU capacity vessels and it was announced at the meeting that they have already taken delivery of seven vessels and 38 more vessels are to be delivered within the next two years.

The event was graced by two Vice Group Chairmen, Bronson Shieh and Raymond Lin who specially flew from Evergreen Head office in Taipei. Bronson at the meeting expressed that their focus in the Indian sub Continent will be greatly enhanced in the coming years and for this purpose it is pivotal to develop Colombo as the main hub port to cater to the growing trade in the region. Raymond in his address said “Evergreen is extremely happy about the current infrastructure development, conducive business environment, vessel turnaround time, growth in the market share of trans-shipment and export volumes out of Colombo.”  

Expressing his optimism, Greenlanka Shipping Ltd, Joint Managing Director Prashan Nanayakkara said “I am dead sure, it was the prevalent sustainable peace in the country that has made our principals hold their regional meeting in Colombo. I would like to urge my fellow shipping agents too to coax their principals into holding their regional meetings in Sri Lanka so that they can see for themselves how Sri Lanka is developing after decisively defeating terrorism which had hindered the country’s progress for 30 years.”

Under Evergreen’s future strategy it is envisaged to embark strongly onto the global market with a capacity enhancement of 25% by the year 2015. In order to gain the maximum benefit of the enhanced activities, Evergreen requires the agents and all offices in the region to increase their skills in order that the trade derives a lot of benefits through Evergreen’s enhanced activities in Colombo and the Region as a whole. The team also visited all the Terminals in Colombo including the mega Terminals under construction in the Colombo South Harbour.

Whilst participating in the dinner, Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Dr. Priyath B. Wickrama stated “At the end of the war against terrorism, President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised to give a strong leadership for the country’s economic expansion and so he did. One main sector in which the Government decided to invest was the maritime infrastructures. To this end, SLPA embarked on several highly capital-intensive port-related mega development projects. It is no exaggeration to say that projects of such magnitude had never been recorded in the annals of our nation. These projects have won the attention of the international maritime community. I take this opportunity to thank Evergreen Line for selecting Colombo for their regional meeting and I invite other shipping lines too to follow suit. I wish Evergreen Line much success.”

“In terms of machinery and other resources, SLPA is well-equipped to handle the world’s largest existing and planned container vessels and deliver unsurpassed standards of service and productivity to our customers,” said Managing Director of SLPA Capt. Nihal Keppetipola.

“The decision to choose Colombo as the venue to hold their regional meeting, by Evergreen Line, fills us with great pride. It means they like to strengthen our business partnership. It is a clear indication of the efficiency of services offered by the SLPA. The popularity of high standard business ethics practiced by SLPA is evident in this act of confidence.” he further stated.